In 2024, foreign investors net sold a total of more than VND93,000 billion worth of Vietnamese stocks, nearly four times more than the previous year. This is the strongest net selling level in the history of the Vietnamese stock market.
Foreign investors were net sellers, earning 3.7 billion USD last year - Photo: QUANG DINH
2024 ended with a growth of more than 12% of VN-Index - the index representing the Vietnamese stock market.
Contrary to expectations of a return of foreign capital, 2024 was a record year of net selling by foreign investors of Vietnamese stocks.
The move comes as frontier and emerging markets (including Vietnam) are less attractive than developed markets.
Foreign ownership ratio drops to 10-year low
Specifically, according to data from Fiintrade - Fiingroup's stock trading analysis platform, in 2024, foreign investors net sold a total of more than VND93,000 billion (USD3.7 billion) of Vietnamese stocks, of which net sales on HoSE were about VND90,000 billion, nearly 4 times higher than in 2023.
Thus, in the 5 years since the Covid-19 pandemic appeared, foreign countries have net sold a total of 167,200 billion VND, nearly double the value of their net purchases in the previous 13 years (2007 - 2019).
Fiintrade noted that this net purchase value only counts secondary transactions (not including primary transactions through private placements or equity issuances of listed enterprises).
Therefore, as of December 31, 2024, the foreign investors' ownership ratio for domestic stocks has decreased to the lowest level in the past 10 years at 12.8% on the 3 exchanges and 16.8% if only calculated on HoSE.
Previously, the foreign investor ownership ratio on HoSE reached its highest level of 21% in early February 2020.
Speaking to Tuoi Tre Online , the director of analysis at a securities company said that foreign investors have a preference for large-cap stocks. Therefore, with the strong move to "dump" stocks and withdraw money last year, large-cap and leading stocks will continue to be under pressure with greater intensity than in 2023.
"Vietnam is still a frontier market, and needs to make efforts to upgrade to emerging status, attracting more large-scale, new foreign investors. Otherwise, it will be difficult to create attraction," the director emphasized.
Foreign investors' buying and selling appetite by industry in 2024 - Data: Fiintrade
By industry, the top net sellers of foreign investors in 2024 are real estate, banking, food, steel, securities, information technology. On the net buying side, foreign investors net bought back retail, logistics warehouses and maintenance, water transport, paper, and water.
Which group of stocks will be sold the most by foreign investors in 2024?
In terms of stocks, their most notable net buying portfolios are Mobile World's MWG and Sacombank's STB when they reversed from a strong net selling status in 2023, the rest are mostly small and medium-cap stocks.
In addition, many stocks that were heavily sold by foreigners still recorded outstanding price increases thanks to strong demand from domestic investors (FPT, HDB, LPB...), but most of them were "bruised" by selling pressure from foreign investors, according to Fiintrade experts.
The scale of foreign net selling has been narrowing in recent months, but the trend of foreign net selling has not shown any signs of "reversing" as capital flows are still directed to the US market - where the economy and asset classes are expected to continue to grow better than frontier and emerging markets thanks to the new dynamics of Trump 2.0.
In the first sessions of 2025, foreign investors continued to net sell. However, many securities companies forecast that foreign capital flows indirectly invested in the Vietnamese market will improve, especially in the second half of 2025.
According to ABS, compared to Southeast Asian countries, VN-Index is currently trading at a lower-than-average price-to-earnings (P/E) valuation. This reflects the fact that VN-Index's return on equity (ROE) is high, while the profit growth outlook of VN-Index remains positive.
In addition, in 2025, the US and EU will continue to loosen monetary policy. The interest rate gap between USD and VND will gradually narrow. At the same time, solutions to upgrade the Vietnamese stock market and operate the KRX trading system are factors that attract quick cash flows from ETF funds in the short term.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/khoi-ngoai-rut-tien-manh-nhat-lich-su-chung-khoan-viet-nhieu-co-phieu-bam-dap-20250104090018988.htm
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